To some it may have seemed like only yesterday that Rebekah Gardner embarked on her high school career at Ayala High School.

To opposing coaches, it’s seemed like decades.

But the UCLA-bound Gardner has finally ended her high school career, and has appropriately earned the Inland Valley Girls Basketball Player of the Year award for the third time.

In the 19-year history of the award, she joins Don Lugo’s Diana Taurasi (1997-2000) as the only players to win the award more than twice.

Ayala coach Mel Sims knew Gardner was something special when she was a freshman. One of the games he most remembers came that year, in a victory over Chino. In that game, Ayala took the ball the length of the floor in about five seconds, and Gardner hit the game-winning basket at the buzzer.

Since then, there have been few opportunities for buzzer-beating shots as the Bulldogs became one of the elite teams in CIF-Southern Section, advancing to back-to-back section championship games by winning most of their games by blowout.

“As a sophomore, not many people knew about my abilities,” she said. “Since then, people put all kind of defenses around me. I know how to score on different types of defenses.

“This year was tougher because against some teams, their defense was pretty good. I think I just have to work on learning how to score more on double teams.”

As a senior, she still averaged 19.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 3.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game for the CIF-SS finalist Bulldogs, who also came within one game of advancing to the state finals.

But as is often the case for players who have success at an early age, Gardner matured into more of a leader by the time she became a senior.

“It was obvious I had to step up,” she said. “There wasn’t anybody else. I had to carry the load for the team. This year, I was the captain.”

Sims agreed.

“Her personality was as a quiet person. But she became more assertive, with her leadership on the floor. She took responsibility to win or lose a ballgame,” Sims said.

While Gardner’s scoring dipped from 28.7 ppg as a sophomore to 22.9 and finally 19.7, neither Gardner nor Sims saw a dip in her game.

“I wasn’t only focused on scoring,” Gardner said. “I was trying to improve what UCLA wanted me to work on. They wanted me to work on shooting, and also my defense.”

Although individual defense at the high school level is hard to quantify, Gardner did improve her free throw shooting from 65 to 73 percent in her senior season.

“I’m trying to teach them to be responsible adults, know your job and be on time,” Sims said. “First of all, she was injury free. Second of all, she was consistent for four years. She was always the go-to player. You could count on her to get the points, to never whine.”

Ayala won games by large margins this season, and frequently in those games, Gardner didn’t play very much, but Sims would still be working to motivate the team.

“We’d try and set defensive goals, like hold the other team to 12 field goals, limit the number of fouls, increase steals or assists. Usually, I would chew them out at halftime,” Sims said. “After that, everything went up. I would say the third quarter was always her best quarter.”

It wasn’t the fourth quarter, because the game was frequently too lopsided for her to play in the fourth quarter.

When Gardner looks back at highlights from her high school career, she recalls the Chino game, the 67-65 win against Perris in the CIF-SS semifinals her junior year that led to the school’s first ever CIF-SS girls basketball title. She also recalls the 50-46 loss to highly touted Long Beach Poly in the championship game of the Ayala Best of the West Invitational her junior year.

But they pale in comparison to the most memorable game.

“It had to be the state semifinal game,” she said. “Even though we lost, it was the most memorable game because it went into triple overtime.”

That loss to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa only serves as motivation for Gardner.

“I’m going to have to get stronger. They’re going to be stronger in college,” she said. “My speed, too, and my ballhandling.”

Sims tends to motivate through a tough-love approach, declining to give players accolades when he knows they could have done better.

High fives are a reward, and Sims is discriminating as to whom he gives those. If you’re lucky you might get one in a season.

“I appreciate what they’re doing. She’ll get one (high-five) at the banquet,” he said. “They put up with me for four years. My ways are tough with the kids.”

Pete Marshall started his career as a freelancer for The Sun in 1991, then later was hired full time by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in 1995. Since then he has covered a variety of sports for the Daily Bulletin and The Sun, primarily high school sports and minor league baseball. He's been doing it long enough that he's now covering the children of student-athletes he covered when he first started.